Birthday
by Citrine Nebulae
Summary: The amusement park playground was sunny and warm, with just enough of a breeze to make it the perfect day. Children-sounds echoed through the tubes and slides of the climbing structure while parents loitered on benches below. It was peaceful. Safe. There was no hint of the terrible thing that was about to happen.


**A/N: AU. Beyond Birthday is more fandom-BB, killing willy-nilly, not to beat L. I used Quarter Queen cuz she's awesome.**

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"**The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted."  
― ****Stephen King****, **_**The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon**_

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The amusement park playground was sunny and warm, with just enough of a breeze to make it the perfect day. Children-sounds echoed through the tubes and slides of the climbing structure while parents loitered on benches below. It was peaceful. Safe.

There was no hint of the terrible thing that was about to happen.

Quarter Queen was celebrating her sixth birthday at Wonderworld. She had picked it, because, in her extremely wizened now-six years, it was simply the best choice. The central climbing structure was the biggest she'd ever seen, and there were fountains throughout the park that kids could run through. In the back of the park, she'd fell in love with an enormous pirate ship that children could run through and pretend to be sailing the seven seas.

"Can I go in the tubes?" she had asked her mother excitedly upon arriving.

Her mother had hesitated for a moment, then smiled and said "Of course, honey."

Quarter Queen squealed and hugged her leg before skipping off.

They were the last words her mother ever said to her.

Quarter Queen climbed into the lowest tube, glancing back to see her mother taking a seat on a bench beside another mom. She faced forward and scrambled up the tube until she got to a vinyl-padded room. She ran along to the other side, dodging a few children younger than her, and saw she could choose between climbing a rope ladder and darting through another tunnel.

She picked the tunnel. It smelled vaguely of socks, and was very warm from the touch of the sun. _It must be a tube that goes to the outside, _she thought. She was about to turn around and head back to the vinyl room when a fish-bowl window caught her eye. She stuck her face close to the clear plastic and peered out, expecting to see her mother. Instead, she realized she had moved to the back of the structure, and she was peering at a grey wall with a sign that said Employees Only on the door. A little further down, a bench sat against the wall. And there was someone sitting on the bench, holding balloons.

Quarter Queen frowned and tried to wipe away fingerprint smears on the plastic so she could get a good look at the person. It didn't appear to be an employee dressed up like a clown or cartoon character. Why would an ordinary person be carrying around so many balloons? There had to be at least twenty of them!

Growling, she scrubbed ferociously at the window with her sleeve until it was clear. She looked out again and yelped in surprise, falling back onto her bottom. The person on the bench had stood up and taken a couple steps in the direction of the climbing structure. And it had been looking directly where she was. She didn't want to think it had been looking _at her_. That would've been too scary. And she was getting a _very_ bad feeling.

She boosted herself back onto her knees, but stayed low, out of the line of sight of the fish-bowl window. Then, slowly, she inched up so she could just see out. The person was gone. But the balloons were tied to the back of the bench, blowing gently in the wind, looking completely non-threatening. She let her breath out, but it did nothing to help the sick, panicky feeling jumping around in her stomach.

Suddenly, a fist slammed against the plastic, hard. It didn't break, but Quarter Queen screamed and fell backwards again. She didn't have to sit up to see the face peering in this time. And with a single, clawing stroke, her resolve was ripped in half. She scrambled upright and started crawling back through the tunnel. She heard a pound again, beneath her, and looked down to see a dark shape through the bright red tunnel. She sobbed and crawled faster. The pounding noises followed her, and as she passed another fish-bowl window, it banged on the glass as she went by.

By this time, she was choking out sobs and crying. She wasn't brave. She was only six years old. The person beneath her was still matching her progress through the tubes. Finally, she spilled out of the tube and into a room made entirely of rope. Panic gripped her. She looked down to see the person staring up at her. It was a man – young, like Quarter Queen's own big brother. But his eyes were black and hungry-looking.

Hungry-looking at _her._

And she knew that his face alone would give her nightmares forever.

She dragged herself away from him and rolled forward. If her arm or foot went through the net, he'd be able to grab her, and then it'd be all over. She was about to dive for a rope and pull herself over a ledge when she heard a voice behind her.

"Hello there."

She froze. She tried to avoid turning around; she didn't _want_ to turn around. She wanted to run away because that man was _bad_ and he looked like he wanted to _eat_ her.

"Why don't you come down from there? We can go get cotton candy or popcorn or ice cream together. You like sweets, don't you?" His voice was sweet on its own. But it was scary – like a purr.

She turned around.

The man lunged upwards, catching her shoe. She screamed as his weight dragged her backwards. The rope floor scraped skin off her ankle where her pants leg pushed up. Fear cracked inside Quarter Queen like a belt. She twisted and pulled with all her might. Her foot popped out of her shoe and she fell forward against the ledge. She grabbed the rope and hauled herself up with strength she wasn't supposed to have as a six year old.

"Wait! Where are you going? Don't you want to go get sweets? It's your birthday, isn't it? It's my birthday too. It's always _my_ birthday." The voice was getting smaller and smaller as she wormed on her belly to get onto the ledge. She was losing him. She was getting away. She'd be okay now.

The ledge branched off into another tunnel. Quarter Queen climbed inside and leaned back against the plastic. She was safe. And she couldn't run or crawl anymore. She looked down at her bare foot and inspected her ankle where the skin was rubbed raw from the ropes. It stung, now that she was calming down. She looked up from it.

And that's when she was the figure at the end of the tunnel.

It was tall, she could tell, but scrunched up. Its limbs were spindly, full of angles as it crouched there. It appeared to be balancing on its toes, looking like some absurd, overgrown bird. The arms were stuck out to the side, fingertips digging into the walls of the tunnel. The head was bowed so she couldn't see a face, only a spiky tangle of black hair.

She watched it calmly – her heart didn't seem to want to speed up again. She had exhausted it earlier. That didn't mean she hadn't put two and two together. Even without being able to see the face, she knew.

She began to scream, long, jagged cries that cut through the happy noise of the playground.

It wouldn't make any difference.

The first person to arrive got there a mere minute after the screams began, but by that time, the girl's eye sockets were already beginning to spill over with blood.


End file.
